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Hospice staff at walk say their work a 'privilege'

These caregivers help people in their final days of life at the Residential Hospice of Grey Bruce. Sunday they joined the Hike for Hospice in Harrison Park, one of six such fundraising hikes across Grey-Bruce. From the left, Lois Ionson, Mar Hackbart and Kelly O'Donohoe. (Scott Dunn/The Sun Times, Owen Sound)

Sunday's Hike for Hospice event in Harrison Park included hospice workers who said they all felt privileged and honoured to work where they can care for people in their dying days.

Mar Hackbart, who has been nursing for 42 years, has worked as a registered nurse for two years in the hospice. It's in Seasons retirement home until a stand-alone home is built. There she cares for residents – they're not called patients -- whose physical and spiritual needs, profound and basic, are addressed.

It's a “homelike” place where there are no harsh, overhead lights and no hospital alarms sound. There are adjoining bedrooms for visiting family. Volunteers come in just to hold residents' hands. They celebrate birthdays and special occasions there, just like home.

There were walks in Chepstow, Hanover, Markdale, Meaford, Kincardine, and Owen Sound, which were part of walks across Canada.

More than 50 pledge forms were collected in Owen Sound, many forms representing whole families walking, said hospice executive director Scott Lovell on Sunday. No totals were available but the goal was to raise more than $55,000. The province only pays for nursing and other beside support worker salaries in hospices.

Ten registered nurses and eight personal support workers all comprise the staff of palliative caregivers.

“There are a lot of components to suffering beyond physical suffering,” Hackbart said before she and others headed off on a walk through the park to raise money for the hospice's operating costs and toward the $3.5-million new build now under construction.

“With a lot of our people, their suffering is a fear of death or loss of hope, finding meaning in life,” Hackbart said. “What we are really doing there, we're providing physical care and we're helping them navigate this chapter of unknowns.”

A big part of the job is supporting families too, who may have taken on the added burden of being their loved one's caregiver, and who now can release that responsibility. Hackbart said she's gratified she can help them too. In some places she's worked, Hackbart said, there wasn't enough time to give the care she wanted to give.

She walked hand-in-hand with Lois Ionson, a personal support worker at the hospice. Ionson said by being there for family members, they can return to “be a wife and a husband again, and not the caregiver.”

“It's hard for them to let go, though,” Kelly O'Donohoe said, at least for some. She's a PSW too and an artist. She draws pictures for residents, often of their pets, which are allowed to visit them in the hospice.

“After a while though, they seem to get very relaxed,” Ionson said. “They see us laugh in the office or they hear us joking in the hallways. It's not so serious.”

Both the resident and the family members seem to improve once the hospice staff step in, O'Donohoe agreed. “We try to make it very peaceful and loving and caring,” she said. “There's always humour.”

Working in such a place takes a toll on hospice staff too. O'Donohoe said people often ask them how they can work in a place like that.

“There's been quite a few times when we've been right there holding their hand when they pass. And it's almost like a privilege and an honour to be there and be part of that,” she said. Sometimes O'Donohoe will go home and cry, which helps bring closure, she said.

“Some times I go home and write in my journal,” Hackbart said. “Because you would not believe the golden nuggets of wisdom and the gifts they give you. They change your insights on things. I think it causes a lot of us to have our own spiritual journey.”